RECORD COMPANY

TIM DuBOIS, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER, UNIVERSAL SOUTH RECORDS

“I grew up playing music,” says Tim DuBois, who was raised by schoolteacher parents in the northwest corner of Oklahoma. In high school he began to write songs, a talent that later became his entry into the music business. At Oklahoma State College he studied accounting and planned to continue on to law school. With a wife and two small children to support upon graduation, he shelved the idea of becoming an attorney and instead earned his master's degree in accounting, taking a job as an auditor at a CPA firm in Dallas. From there, he was hired as senior financial analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank. DuBois’ time in Dallas proved to be another important step toward his future musical career. “That is when I first became interested in music that had country roots. I didn't grow up listening to The Opry. I was strictly into rock and roll music. It was in my early twenties, there in Texas, that I discovered the music that eventually led me to Nashville.”

Inspired by the sounds of country music, DuBois began to write songs again. His thirst for knowledge led him to the local library in search of information about the business side of music. “I read every book I could get my hands on.” Through diligent study he came to understand the basics of how the industry worked. Songwriter magazine proved especially helpful in alerting him to the pitfalls that await aspiring writers. Returning to Oklahoma State in 1974 to pursue a doctoral degree, DuBois became acquainted with several people who later would prove influential to his music career, including future production partner Scott Hendricks. He also discovered that his musical talents were as a songwriter, rather than as a vocalist. A year later, having secured several appointments with music publishers, he made his first visit to Nashville. While not received with open arms, DuBois made a few contacts, managed to generate some interest in one of his songs, and got some good advice. One publisher advised, “If you really want to do this, you're going to have to move out here, but you need to come with your eyes wide open to the fact that you probably won't make it.” He told DuBois to come prepared with a game plan, another way to make a living, and to be persistent.

Setting himself a two-year limit to succeed as a songwriter, DuBois got a job at the University of Tennessee in Nashville in 1977. At night he taught classes in accounting and by day he wrote songs. After two years of frustration, despite getting several album cuts, he was ready to return to Oklahoma. A chance meeting with another songwriter convinced him to give it one more try. Within the year, he had been signed to his first publishing contract, and one year later had written three number one songs: “Midnight Hauler” (Razzie Bailey), “Love in the First Degree” (AlabamA&Rpar;, and “She Got the Gold Mine, I Got the Shaft” (Jerry Reed). “Those three songs changed my life as a songwriter. I set a goal to always have something in the charts, going up or coming down, and for the next three years, I did.”

Having achieved a level of success, DuBois and a group of friends began writing songs that rode the line between pop and country. Believing in the songs despite a lack of interest from the country music community, he put together a band to perform them. After many trials, Restless Heart was born. With $50,000 of his own money invested and an eight-song demo album he had produced, DuBois and partner Scott Hendricks began shopping the band at record labels. Only RCA's president, Joe Galante, saw the group's potential. As producer of the band's records, DuBois recovered his investment on the first album, saw the next three albums go gold, and wrote his fourth number one song, “The Bluest Eyes in Texas.” When the group's management deal went sour, DuBois became their manager as well. Searching for a partner, he connected with the prestigious Los Angeles pop and rock management firm Fitzgerald Hartley Company, facilitating the opening of their Nashville office in 1985. The firm expanded the Nashville operation by signing Foster & Lloyd and Vince Gill.

Frustrated that the demands of managing left little time for songwriting, DuBois hooked up with Gill, who at the time was frustrated by his own inability to break into the country market. They wrote three songs in one week, including “Oklahoma Swing,“ a hit duet by Gill and Reba, and “When I Call Your Name,” which became Gill's breakthrough single and DuBois’ fifth number one song. In 1988, DuBois realized that the pressures of managing, writing, and producing for Restless Heart had become too much. He took stock of his life and decided to simplify. Divesting his interest in the band, he was considering opening a publishing company when Arista Records contacted him about heading up a country division. Not really wanting the job, but eager to meet label head Clive Davis, DuBois took the meeting and wound up getting the job. (“When I read all those books about the music business back in the mid-70s, one of them was Clive: Inside the Music Business.”)

After assembling his team, DuBois signed Alan Jackson and Exile the first year, Brooks & Dunn, Diamond Rio, and Pam Tillis the second year, and by the third year, had made Arista the number two label in Nashville. During the boom years of the early 1990s, Arista opened a second country label, a Christian music division, and a Latin division. All of these were either sold or reabsorbed into the Arista Group as the country market began to slump later in the decade. After launching the Wilkinsons in 1998 and Brad Paisley in 1999, the label was back on track.

Taking stock of his career, DuBois once again was looking at opening a publishing company, when a restructuring at Gaylord Entertainment, owners of the Grand Ole Opry, offered a new possibility. Released from his contract at Arista, DuBois was appointed president of the creative content group in 2000. Six months later, DuBois left Gaylord to pursue other interests.

In early 2002, DuBois teamed with mega-hit-producer Tony Brown—Brown has produced more than 100 No. 1 singles for artists that include Wynonna, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, and George Strait—to launch Universal South Records. The first full-service, major start-up label in over a decade, the label was a joint venture between DuBois, Brown, and New York-based Universal Records.

The two executives share a commitment to expanding the marketplace for new music. Under their leadership, the roster featured both country and rock acts, including Joe Nichols, Marty Stuart, Shooter Jennings, and Lee Roy Parnell. DuBois left the label in early 2007 to “attend to family matters.” www.universal-south.com